Blue catfish and bluegills look to be the fish of particular note at LaSalle Lake. The cooling lake southwest of Seneca reopens to fishing Saturday.
‘‘Blues remain the stars of the fishery,’’ biologist David Wyffels emailed. ‘‘The 2024 fall survey results indicate pre-2020 fish-kill numbers of fish 12 to 20 inches in length and better-than-average numbers of fish 20 to 30 inches in length.’’
In the summer of 2020 (as though that year didn’t have enough chaos), LaSalle had a significant fish kill that decimated the bigger-sized fish, particularly blues.
‘‘Noteworthy was the increased numbers in the larger 20- to 30-inch blues,’’ Wyffels emailed. ‘‘This size group had been one that I was watching for rebounds with since the 2020 fish kill.’’
I checked in with Darryl Turner, the great catcher of blues at LaSalle, about what he saw in the last few years. He texted: ‘‘Yes, it seemed as if they were on the comeback. I will be there on opening day.’’
Opening day at LaSalle — or, rather, opening night — used to be a ritual for me. But I won’t be there Saturday.
Bluegills have become my favorite target at LaSalle, particularly on the east bank.
Wyffels gushed about them, emailing: ‘‘The bluegills still continue to amaze me how well they do, [as shown by] spring catch rates and size-group relative weights. They are fat and numerous!’’
Stockings last year were fairly typical: 20,580 blue advanced fingerlings, 42,841 bluegill fingerlings, 22,149 largemouth bass advanced fingerlings, 26,932 largemouth fingerlings, 25,636 smallmouth bass advanced fingerlings and 21,342 hybrid striped bass fingerlings.
Site and fishing regulations at LaSalle remain the same. Hours are 6 a.m. to sunset. The key for boaters is to check daily updates at (815) 640-8099. The forecast doesn’t look good for boaters for the first several days.
Wild things
Recent days have been mostly good — nights below freezing, days warming — to get maple sap flowing. If you’re a parent, youth leader or scout leader, I highly suggest finding a maple syrup event to attend. It’s time.
* Sandhill cranes are on the move, according to multiple readers. In these cases, I always wonder whether the balmy weather has us out more, so we notice more outdoors activity. Then I saw hundreds of sandhills circling Monday in Markham.
• I’m among many who had their first sighting of red-winged blackbirds in the last week.
Illinois hunting
The 2024-25 bobcat season had a record harvest of 649: 415 (63.9%) taken by hunting and 234 (36.1%) by trapping. Twenty-five more were salvaged (such as roadkill) by permit holders. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources issued 2,000 bobcat permits from 9,200 applicants.
Stray cast
It’s that time when I remember my dream of becoming the next Billy Martin. Would’ve been better to dream of being the next Ted Williams (the fishing version).
